


Magnolia

by Ryuchika



Category: Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Mutual Pining, Other, Reader-Insert, Self-Insert, Slow Burn, jedi!reader
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:26:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24571510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryuchika/pseuds/Ryuchika
Summary: You're padawan to master Mace Windu, but not exactly the brightest of students. As a training exercise, he sends you on a training mission with the 501st. As you continue your journey, you get closer to a certain captain, despite the jedi teachings forbidding you from developing attachments.
Relationships: CT-7567 | Rex/Reader
Comments: 11
Kudos: 43





	1. Special training

**Author's Note:**

> This is purely a self-indulgent work, though I tried to write a gender-neutral reader for everyone's enjoyment. If I sometimes slip up I apologize. As always, English isn't my first language so please forgive any mistakes. Other than that I hope you enjoy.

A deep sigh left your lips as you entered the bridge of the battleship. The battleship of the 501st. You ended up here after general Skywalker had a brillliant idea after a conversation with your master, Mace Windu. Somehow, you became the topic of that conversation, in which both masters were talking about the training of their padawans. 

You were... not the most brilliant student. You were naturally timid and lacked the assertiveness of a leader. Your skills in lightsaber combat were nothing to brag about, either. Both were skills master Skywalker and his padawan, Ahsoka Tano, excelled at, thus emerged his idea of taking you on a mission with Ahsoka and the 501st, with you as the commander to brush up on some leadership skills. Needless to say, this was way out of your comfort zone. 

You had been a padawan since a little while before the clone wars. Times were still rather peaceful, times you missed dearly. You had felt more and more like a failed padawan since the need for battle skills had risen sharply. If there was one thing you had going for you, however, it was your way with the Force. You were extremely Force-sensitive, picking up advanced techniques way before other padawans, even surpassing your master in some. In saber training however, this meant very little, especially since your master was trying to make you improve on the skills you lacked. You understood that he was just looking out for you, but you really wished he hadn't assigned a mission like this to you. 

Now you stood there, dozens of familiar amber eyes trained on you, only feeding the nervousness that was building in your stomach. You didn't know these men, though they were all clones, like the soldiers in your master's battalion. Master Skywalker stood next to you, his arms folded behind his back, glancing at you from the corner of his eye. He cleared his throat, as if to urge you to start talking. You sighed and gathered all your courage before you spoke. Ahsoka, who was on Master Skywalker’s other side, glanced at you expectantly. 

“Um... Hi? Everyone... I'm Reina [L/N].” You looked around you, but quickly cast your gaze downward after noticing all eyes on you. 

“I'm master Windu's padawan. As a part of my training, I was assigned to lead this mission... Uh...” You pointed at the holomap in front of you. 

“Our mission will be in the Nanth’ri system. It’s under separatist control, and recently there has been increased activity in the airspace. Scouts report that they’re building something on this moon... here. The Council wants to know what.” You looked around, unsure if you forgot anything important, fiddling with the hems of your sleeves. 

“Oh, and, um... Thanks for having me...” Your voice trailed off and almost ended in a whisper. You desperately looked at master Skywalker to take over for you. He put a hand on your shoulder and gave it a slight squeeze before continuing. “Our mission is strictly recon. You are not to engage unless attacked. Ideally you leave undetected. Oh, and... Please make sure Reina’s stay with the 501st is a pleasant one. Don't freak her out too much.” He gave you a slight wink, but you could only cringe. Some of the clones chuckled, others elbowed their nearest brother in the side. They couldn't really be that bad, could they? 

“Alright, dismissed! We will depart momentarily.” Most of the clones started to leave the bridge to return to their posts. Master Skywalker then turned to you. “Don’t be afraid to speak up more, they don’t bite. They’re a little rough around the edges, maybe, but they’re good men. You’re here to work on your leading skills, after all.” You answered with a slight nod, still recovering from your public speaking nervousness. Somehow you didn’t feel much like a leader. 

“Hey, Reina?” It was Ahsoka, giving you a slight look of worry. She was younger than you, but very talented. You couldn't help but admire her. 

“Perhaps you should go meet your squad and spend some time with them before the mission. I'm sure they'll appreciate it.” She gave you a pat on the shoulder before she went back to join master Skywalker. 

You had to admit, she was right. You anxiously made your way to the room in the ship where the clones were hanging out, stopping just outside of the door. With your hand hovering over the access panel, you heard laughter and faint voices coming from inside. 

“Did you see how nervous they were? Man, that's adorable.” 

“Adorable? You mean hot as-" 

“Fives! They're our commander for this mission!” 

“So what? I have eyes, I can look!” 

“You mean stare.” 

“Well, I wasn't the only one! Even the captain-Ow!” 

Your face was the shade of a ripe meiloorun as the door slid open in front of you and one of the clones bumped into you while leaving the room. You stumbled, but a strong hand quickly grabbed hold of your forearm. 

“Well, look who we have here! It’s the commander! We were just talking about you.” 

“Come on, join us for a chat before we arrive.” 

You nodded sheepishly and made your way inside the room. Part of you regretted this decision, but the other part was... curious. These men all had distinct force signatures, even though they were clones. You noticed the same in master Windu’s battalion, but not as clearly as with the 501st. The troopers all had the same base armour with blue accents, but each was customized to the wearers liking. Some of the clones even had facial tattoos and different hairstyles to distinguish themselves. The man that stood out the most had a short buzz cut that was dyed blonde, and his armour had many victory marks on it. Most obvious were his pauldron and leather kama, telling you that this must be captain Rex. When master Skywalker briefed you on the mission, he told you that captain Rex was very experienced and resourceful, and if something ever went wrong to listen to his advice. You noticed him staring at you, a stern but intrigued look in his eyes. He quickly looked away when your eyes met his. 

The clone who spoke next had a tattoo on his forehead that resembled a number five, which led you to believe he was the “Fives” they were yelling at earlier. 

“So you’re master Windu’s padawan, eh? Must be rough. He seems like such a hardass all the time.” 

“Fives!” Some other clones shouted in unison. 

For the first time since you entered the battleship, you chuckled. “Don’t worry, it’s alright. Master Windu might be stern, but he does mean well... Fives, was it? It’s nice to meet you.” Your own confidence surprised you, but there was something comforting in the presence of these men. 

Another clone replied. “It's nice to meet you too, commander [L/N]. I'm Echo, and this is Hardcase. You’ve seen Fives, this is Tup, and here's our medic, Kix. And last but not least, captain Rex.” Each trooper gave a small nod or hand wave after being introduced. 

“So, commander... What do you think about the mission?” This was the first time captain Rex spoke. His voice was pragmatic and to the point, more so than the other clones. In a way, this reminded you of your master. Perceptive as you are, you had a nagging feeling that he was somehow testing and judging you by what your answer would be. You thought for a bit before speaking, going over what had been briefed to you. 

“I don’t really know what to expect yet. It’s supposed to be a stealth mission, but something seems... off. We should be prepared for anything. There might as well be a trap somewhere, knowing the separatists.” Captain Rex nodded with the corners of his lips slightly upturned, seemingly satisfied with your answer. “Yeah, I agree. Glad to have you on board, commander.” 

You were about to blush, but a message over the ship's intercom interrupted your thoughts. 

“Attention all personnel, we have entered the Nanth'ri system. Please prepare for flight to the moon's surface.” 

The clones quickly stood up, putting on their helmets. “Alright men, let's go!” captain Rex said, giving you a last confident smile before putting on his own helmet. 


	2. Vulnerability

You and the 501st, together with master Skywalker and Ahsoka, had arrived on the moon's surface, the jedi master and his padawan would stay on the ship however. The landscape was rocky with many mountains and passes. There was barely any atmosphere, allowing you full view of the galaxy above. The thin layer of atmosphere that was present made swirls of indigo and purple in the sky, on which thousands, possibly millions of stars were sprawled out. The absence of air however meant you had to wear a respirator. 

Contrary to the beautiful sky above, the moon surface was desolate and seemingly devoid of any life, the rubble being almost monochrome. Every step you took whipped up a small cloud of dust. 

Because of the landscape, you had to land somewhat far away from the facility and travel the rest on foot to avoid detection. After a few hours of uneventful walking, you finally arrived near the clearing where the building stood. There was some sort of perimeter around the building, which was barely noticable unless you looked for it. It was only visible as a slight distortion in your field of vision. You stopped your troops before they got too close. 

“What’s the problem, commander?” Echo questioned. 

“There’s sonething here, some kind of barrier. You’ll see it if you look closely. Hang on.” 

You reached down to grab a rock off the ground and threw it towards the building, through the barrier. It made it through unscathed. 

“We should be fine... Do be careful though, it might still have an effect on organic tissue.” The clones looked at one another. You couldn’t see their faces, but you could sense their hesitation. You remembered that this was a training exercise to improve your sense of leadership, so you decided you should be the one testing the barrier. 

“It’s alright, I’ll go first.” 

Rex wanted to object, but you already reached out and put your pinky finger through. It looked funny, but it wouldn’t be the worst finger to lose. Going through the barrier felt strange, but nothing bad happened. As you passed through the barrier and turned around facing the others, you felt more friction around your body. Several clones gasped as you took the respirator off your face and took a deep breath. 

“It’s like an air bubble! It’s safe, let’s go.” The troops nodded and followed you through. Captain Rex scanned the entrance. 

“It’s no use, the entrance is well-guarded. We’ll have to find a different entry point.” 

“Why don’t we just blast through? We can take a few clankers!” Hardcase argued. 

“This is a stealth mission, Hardcase! How are we going to find out what they’re doing in there if they put everything in lockdown after we simply walk through the front door?!” Echo replied with a sigh. Hardcase looked at you. 

“Well commander? What do you think?” 

You hesitated. You weren’t used to people asking you for suggestions, much less orders. Even if you didn’t have to remain unseen, you really didn’t want to cause too much of a ruckus. The less battles you had to face, the better. 

“Well, uh... Let’s try to find a different entrance first. We’ll keep your idea as a plan B, though?” You replied hesitantly, not wanting to completely shoot down Hardcase’s input. 

“You mean as plan Z!” Fives laughed. 

“Pft, this is not my kinda mission...” Hardcase pouted. 

You lead your group around the facility, staying near the edge of the clearing near the mountains as much as you could. Eventually you happened upon a service entrance. Next to the door was a control panel with a card reader slot. 

“Great... It’s locked. Maybe we can blow the door up!” Hardcase said hopefully. 

“What part of stealth mission do you just not seem to grasp?!” Echo hissed. “Besides, we have a jedi with us, remember?” He gestured at you, while the door slid open after you used the Force to open the lock. You blinked at them, confused and oblivious to their quarrel. “Sorry, is there a problem?” 

Hardcase sighed. “Nope, it’s nothing, commander…” He dejectedly followed you inside the building. 

The corridor you ended up in was empty, save for some doors on the left and right. The hallway ended a little further and split into two, giving you the option of going either left or right. 

“Commander, maybe we should split up here.” Rex commented. 

“Hmm, perhaps you're right… Tup, Kix, you should stay here to guarantee our exit. Echo, Fives and Hardcase, you go right. Captain Rex, left with me.” 

The clones looked at you, bewildered by your tone of voice, before giving you a salute and a “yes sir". Honestly, your confidence surprised even yourself. You attributed it to the clones inspiring you and wanting you to be your best self in front of them. Rex looked at you, waiting for you to give the go-ahead. You gave him a nod, and the two of you disappeared into the left corridor. 

“Ah, the captain’s gonna have all the fun, isn’t he?” Hardcase sighed. 

Fives grinned. “We're gonna have to roast him for it later.” 

\--- 

The halls seemed to go on endlessly, but surprisingly enough there was no security inside the facility. Clearly they were quite confident nobody would get into the building, let alone find the moon it was on. A strange smell hung in the air, chemical in nature. There were many junctions, but you had a feeling where to go with each one. Rex seemed to question why you chose the routes at first, but you couldn’t explain why besided that it was a gut feeling. He was sceptical at first, but he remembered that “going with the flow" was usually one of general Skywalker’s most favored tactics. 

Eventually you ended up in front of a large double door, again with a card reader next to it. 

“So... this is it?” Rex asked. 

“Yeah. But I sense people on the inside.” 

“That could be a problem... What do you suggest?” Rex already knew the answer, but he asked anyway. 

You pressed a button on the comlink on your wrist. 

“Fives, Echo, Hardcase, do you copy?” 

“What is it, commander?” It was Echo who answered. 

“I need you to create a diversion, wherever you are now. We need this room empty.” You swore you could hear Hardcase let out an elated “Yeeah!”. 

“Copy that, commander, won’t be a problem.” 

A few moments later, the building shook as an explosion echoed through the halls. The light in the corridor turned a deep red and a siren started howling. You looked at Rex, and even though he had his helmet on, you knew you both were thinking the same thing: Hardcase. There goes the “stealthy” part of the mission. You should have seen this coming after hearing Hardcase all giddy over the comlink earlier. You and Rex hid behind a corner as the double door slid open and several people started running down the hallway in the opposite direction. As soon as the people were out of sight and you felt no more presences inside, you ran up to the card reader and unlocked the door. 

\--- 

“Hardcase! We were supposed to create a diversion, not blow up half the facility!” Echo, the voice of reason, scolded. 

“Hey, a diversion is a diversion! Besides, this is just a part of the hallway, hardly half the facility!” 

“Don’t you know what this means? You could have just jeopardized the mission! Not to mention the commander could get in trouble for that!” Hardcase looked down, feeling slightly guilty after this statement. 

“Can’t be helped anymore, now. Let’s get somewhere safe, they're coming already!” 

“What just happened?! Hardcase, was that you?” Tup’s voice sounded from Echo’s comlink. 

“Don’t worry, we got it under control!” Hardcase answered, while Echo brought his palm to his face. 

“Someone’s coming! We need to hide, fast!” Fives hissed. 

As they hid in an adjacent hallway, they saw several figures running towards the room Harcase set off the grenade in, followed by a few battledroids. 

“Bad news captain, they’ve got droid commandos here. Whatever is here must be worth protecting.” Fives paged to Rex. 

\---

The room you now stood in was dark, so dark your eyes had to get used to the dim light. The red alarm light from the hallways was absent here. Instead, an eerie blue light illuminated a series of large glass cylinders that lined the walls. They were filled with fluid, and occasionally a bubble could be seen rising from the bottom, diffusing on collision with what seemed to be a shapeless mass suspended inside the tube. The mass had several electrodes on its surface, connected to the top of the tank. Next to it was a vitals monitor, softly beeping, showing numbers that weren’t compatible with regular lifeforms. 

“What... Is this place?” Rex looked around in horrified confusion. 

“It’s a lab...” You replied, equally horrified. In the middle of the room were several research stations, each with their own laminar airflow section and computer terminal. You took a look into one of the microscopes that still had a slide under it. You could make out some cells under it, some with hairlike protrusions, some not. The ones with the pili were using them to move towards the smooth cells, eventually penetrating the outer membrane. The regular cell started to shrink down and eventually the membrane broke, spilling the cell’s contents and killing it. 

“What the hell are they experimenting on?” Rex asked as you accessed one of the computers. You browsed the files on the hard drive for a while, your expression turning more disgusted with each passing minute. 

“Captain... They’re developing some kind of... pathogen. They’re turning to biological warfare.” 

“...What?” Rex took off his helmet to come and look over your shoulder at the screen. He silently scanned the document, even though he couldn’t understand half the words that were used. 

“Commander... This is disastrous. If this gets out, we can’t protect ourselves anymore. Something like this... It would turn our own bodies against us. We soldiers can protect ourselves against blaster fire, but this... I know it was strongly discouraged to do so, but... we need to get rid of this facility. Right now.” 

“You’re right, captain... There’s no other way. Copy all the data you can, then start setting bombs and erase the data on the terminals. We don’t know how much they have saved elsewhere, but it might buy us some time if we blow this whole thing up.” 

As Rex paged the others briefing them on the next course of action, you tried to delete all the data you could. You were no slicer, so instead you tried to poke around the physical hardware with the Force. Through the local network, you overloaded the circuits of every hard drive you could sense, rendering them unsalvageable. 

“Let’s hope they don’t have a big cloud storage...” You muttered. 

By the time you were done, Rex had distributed several bombs around the lab room. 

“We need to rendezvous with the rest as soon as possible”, Rex said as he opened the door back to the hallway. “Oh, by the way, commander... Good work there.” 

Your cheeks flushed a little at the compliment. So far, nobody ever gave you compliments, except for the occasional one your master would give you. You didn’t expect to get praise from someone you just met, let alone in a situation like this. Still bewildered, you replied “Thanks, you too captain.”

\--- 

After joining up with Fives, Hardcase and Echo, the facility was on high alert. You could hear the metal footsteps of the droids clanking on the hard floor behind you, urging you and the clones to pick up speed and run towards the side entrance you used to infiltrate the facility, where Tup and Kix were waiting. 

“Are all the bombs set?” Tup asked urgently. 

“Yeah man! Can’t wait to blow this whole place up!” Hardcase replied, way too giddy for the current situation. 

“We’ll likely have to get out of the ventilated force field to get far enough to be able to escape the blast”, Kix commented. 

“Alright everyone, time to go! Detonate the charges once we’re a safe distance from the facility!” You started making your way towards the exit, once again unlocking it with the Force. Just as the door slid closed, you could see the droid commando’s in the corner of your eyes. 

You ran back the same way you came, along the edge of the clearing, towards the rim of the air dome and the opening to the canyon where the ship was. However, both behind and in front of you a vast army of droids rushed towards your group, essentially closing in on all sides. The clones opened fire, taking down dozens of droids, but they were replaced as fast as they were taken down. You grabbed your lightsaber and ignited the blade, reflecting several incoming blasts back to the battle droids. 

“They just keep coming! We can’t break through!” Fives yelled. 

“Just keep firing!” Hardcase shouted as his rotary blaster cannon took out several battle droids. 

By now, you were forced with your backs against eachother into a circle as the droids closed in. 

“Commander! We won’t make it!” Rex tried to get through to you above the buzzing of blaster fire. 

You could barely hear it. 

A stray bolt hit Tup in the shoulder, making him cry out in pain. Hardcase moved in to cover for him. The situation had become worse than you thought it would ever get. Your body moved instinctively reflecting the blaster fire as your mind started to wander and anxiety was taking over. This was supposed to be a stealth mission! Simply getting in, getting what you need and out. The mission was a disaster. This way, you wouldn’t even survive. You would drag down these men with you, all for what was supposed to be a simple training exercise. You failed them all: your master, the clone soldiers that were with you, master Skywalker... yourself. 

“Commander!” You felt Rex’ hand on your shoulder, snapping you out of your thoughts. You were responsible. You had to do something. 

“Captain... I trust you to finish the mission, should something happen to me.” 

“What-" 

Rex didn’t have the time to finish his sentence, since you withdrew your lightsaber and rushed forward, towards the horde of droids. 

_Focus._

Closing your eyes, you tried to block out the outside world and focus on the Force. 

Your heartrate accelerated. You could feel the Force flowing through your body, throbbing like hot blood pumped through your veins. 

_Imagine the droids and their circuits._

Your body instinctively avoided the series of blaster bolts that were fired at you. 

The amount of Force energy that you allowed to flow through you was starting to feel painful, like jolts of electricity stimulating every single nerve end. 

_Then let it go._

A shockwave of Force energy shot out of your body, hitting the droids around you head-on. Each droid that was hit exploded, their heads or several appendages blown off by sheer force. Your shockwave spread through the clearing, protecting friend and defeating foe. The clone soldiers could only stare in awe at the complete destruction of the entire droid force around them.

As soon as the dust settled down somewhat, you slowly turned your head back to the group. A trickle of blood could be seen coming out of your ear. You managed to flash them a weak smile, before your vision went black and your body collapsed. You felt your consciousness slip away, but you never felt yourself hitting the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! I'm in a love-hate relationship with my writing, so I wasn't even sure I should post this. Hope some of you people like it nonetheless.


End file.
